ABSTRACT
In cartography, the transition from the mediaeval to the modern was gradual rather than catastrophic. In popular cartography indeed mediaeval concepts were tenacious of life. Fifteenth century world maps such as those of Andreas Walsperger and Giovanni Leardo were copied by the author of La Salade nouvellement imprimee. An even more remarkable survival occurs in a Russian broadside world map, apparently first drawn in the first half of the seventeenth century. Although later revised to incorporate information from Gerard Mercator's atlas, the text of which was translated into Russian in 1637, this map remained a treasury of mythical lore from the Middle Ages; yet it continued to appear as a popular print until the middle of the nineteenth century. In the 15th century, and even occasionally in the 16th, woodcut and printing press continued to reproduce the hand-drawn cartographic works of an earlier age.
